Kembrew McLeod is an independent documentary filmmaker and an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa. His books and films focus on both popular music and the cultural impact of intellectual property law. McLeod’s Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property received the American Library Association’s Oboler book award for “best scholarship in the area of intellectual freedom” in 2006. He co-authored with Northwestern Law Professor Peter DiCola the book Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, as well as the co-edited the anthology Cutting Across Media: Interventionist Collage, Appropriation Art, and Copyright Law, with Rudolf Kuenzli (both will be published by Duke University Press early-2011). McLeod’s documentary, Money For Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music, was programmed at the 2002 South by Southwest Film Festival and the 2002 New England Film and Video Festival, where it received the Rosa Luxemburg Award for Social Consciousness. His second documentary, titled Freedom of Expression®, is a companion to the book of the same name, and was also distributed by the Media Education Foundation. Most recently, he co-produced the documentary Copyright Criminals, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and aired on PBS’s Emmy Award-winning documentary series, Independent Lens. McLeod’s music and cultural criticism have appeared in Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Wilson Quarterly, the Village Voice, MOJO, SPIN, and the New Rolling Stone Album Guide.
Articles
Media Pranks: A Three-Act Essay, International Journal of Communication (2011)
Times are tough for public universities. Over the past quarter-century, state legislatures have slashed college...
Everything Is Connected, Quarterly Journal of Speech; (2010)
The article discusses U.S. copyright law and the copyright clearance system, focusing on the author's...
Crashing the Spectacle: A Forgotten History of Digital Sampling, Infringement, Copyright Liberation and the End of Recorded Music, Culture Machine (2009)
Books
Creative license - the law and culture of digital sampling (with P. DiCola) (2011)
The golden age of sampling -- A legal and cultural history of sound collage --...
Freedom of Expression: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity, Communication Studies Publications (2005)
Contributions to Books
The New Market Affair: Scouting for Gold in the Hills of the Shenandoah Valley, Pop When the World Falls Apart: Music in the Shadow of Doubt (2012)
Freedom of Expression® Als Eingetragenes Markenzeichen/Trademarking Freedom of Expression®, Geistigen Eigentums (2008)
Common, The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated (2004)
Entries included: ―Common,‖ ―Luke Vibert,‖ ―Faith Evans,‖ ―Super Furry Animals,‖ ―Black Sheep,‖ ―Ruff Ryders,‖ ―Good...
Popular Press
Presentations
Phoning It In: A Digitized Lecture-Performance On the History of Music and the Telephone, by The Killer Apps (with L. Glass), Pop Conference at EMP (2010)
Licensed to Ill: The Relationship Between the Current Copyright Clearance System and Alternative Licensing Systems. Intellectual Property and the Making and Marketing of Music in the Digital Age:, Symposium of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University (2010)
Fair Use, Copyright Clearance, and Multimedia Scholarship, Public Knowledge‘s First Annual Fair Use Day Symposium (2010)
Scratch That: The Sample License Clearance Process and Artist Compensation, Future of Music Policy Summit (2009)
Other
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, featuring the Copyright Criminals All-Stars Band (with B. Franzen) (2010)
Co-produced live musical event for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, featuring the Copyright Criminals All-Stars...
Copyright Criminals (2009)
Feature-length documentary. World premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 19, 2009. United...
Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property (2007)
Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property. (51 minutes) Northampton,...
Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music (2001)
Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music. Producer and Director. (49 minutes) Northampton,...
Owning culture: Authorship, ownership and intellectual property law, Electronic Doctoral Dissertations for UMass Amherst (2000)
Owning Culture demonstrates how the fabric of social life in most Western countries--and increasingly, the...